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What was the first Japanese train you purchased?


Bernard

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For me it was Kato's Toki, the Sunliner and C11. I was in Nagano for 3 weeks working and had 1 morning off where I could go shopping. I stumbled on a Hobby store that's windows were filled with Model trains. It took me a while to figure out the exchange rate and no one in the store spoke English. Through a lot of hand gestures I was able to purchase the trains

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Where was the hobby shop in Nagano? Nagano City? I used to live in Ueda City from 87-90. I don't remember Nagano City having a good Hobby shop, but there were nice ones in Matsumoto and Ueda. But I wasn't looking for trains then. My first was the Thomas the Train set and before that, the Shortie 185 and 183. About 9 years ago, I bought a bunch of Plarail Thomas trains for my students to play with after class.

Grant

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Mine wasn't purchased by me, it was a (Christmas?) present.  I was in the first grade of primary school, Tomix had just started selling N scale trains, and I got their 0-6-0 tank steam locomotive with freight car set and a loop of track.  My previous experience with model trains was a Lionel set with the iconic F7 in ATSF Super Chief colors (my Dad's boyhood set), so this one was considerably smaller.

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Kato Yamanote E231 (10-261 basic 6-car set). Still one of my favorites.

 

I'd been looking for something different from HO freight, and thinking about contemporary passenger trains. After considering British OO (I'd been reading Model Rail, which is what had inspired the interest in contemporary passenger trains to begin with) I noticed an ad for Kato Japanese trains that planted the seed.  One train and some track later, the hook was firmly set.  The second train (my Nozomi Series 500) followed a couple of months later, and I've been addicted ever since.

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purchased was one Kato E1 MAX (yeah! the train with my name on both sides)

like Christmas gift one Lima Shinkansen 0 in H0 scale in 1978 (and still run  :grin )

 

Ciao

Massimo

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A Kato EF63 and some freight cars. Then I bought some Tomix Kihas 48 but I really got hooked when I bite the bullet and hunted down my first EMU, a JR Shikoku 8000 Series.

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ShinCanadaSen

Kato 10-003(?) 500 series Shinkansen starter set. First Japanese train I found in any of my LHS'. Took about 2 years to find, because I didn't think of checking online !!!

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Martijn Meerts

Kato 800 series. It was also the first to get a motor decoder, first to get 2 function decoders in the cab cars, first to get interior light, and soon the first to have switchable interior light in the full train =)

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Claude_Dreyfus

My first Japanese-built model was the Kato Eurostar.

 

A couple of years later - in about 1997 - came my first Japanese prototype...a Tomix EF81 in Twilight Express livery with a set of Tomix Naniwa Saloon cars; obtained for JR Models in Somerset

 

IMG_1310.jpg

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qwertyaardvark

As far as Japanese trains go, Tomix 300 Series Shinkansen and EF66 plus Hayabusa 7-car set. As far as Japanese-made trains go, Kato Eurostar and 700T were my first purchases. :)

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An old Aurora 200 set off ebay for $40!

 

actually in grad school i did buy the pair of tomix snow plow ends as they use to sell them w/o the de15. saw them in the berkeley student union store of all places and just bought them on a whim!

 

jeff

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A crummy ED75 from KATO. 2nd hand for 20€. Still have it and runs crappy, very loud but still running... Bought it as a test. The first motorised train I bought new was a DD54 from Tomix.

 

Now only concentrating on interurbans and small electric freight.

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